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Chehalis City council adopts higher water, sewer and stormwater rates
Summary
The Chehalis City Council approved three ordinances on second and final reading to raise monthly base charges and per-unit consumption rates for water, sewer and stormwater and move to monthly billing; staff said the changes are driven by rising infrastructure and operating costs and will be folded into the 2025 budget process.
Chehalis City Council on Feb. 24 adopted three ordinances adjusting utility rates for water, sewer and stormwater, approving the measures on second and final reading.
City staff presented example bills and the proposed new monthly structure, saying both fixed (base) charges and consumption (CCF/cons) rates will increase. "The base rate and the consumption rate are both changing," said Lance, a city staff member who walked council through a sample bill showing the proposed 2025 figures.
The ordinances amend municipal code sections tied to utility billing and move the city from the existing two-month billing cycle to monthly statements. Under the staff example, the current water base rate of $17.92 per month would rise to $21.68; water consumption would move from about $2.66 per CCF (one CCF = 100 cubic feet = 748 gallons) to $3.22 per CCF. The proposed sewer base would increase from $53.49 to $55.09 and sewer consumption from $6.43 to $6.62 per CCF. The stormwater fixed charge moved from $9.45 to $10.96 in the illustration. The mock one‑month bill provided by staff totaled $107.41 under the new rates.
In presenting the study, staff and consultants emphasized that much of utilities' costs are fixed — infrastructure, treatment and staffing — and that changing the split between fixed and volume charges affects revenue stability and customer bills at different usage levels. "Utilities costs are probably 90-plus percent fixed," a consultant said, noting tradeoffs between revenue stability and fairness for low-usage customers.
Councilors asked for clarifications about how the base charges had historically been set, the effect of past decisions to defer increases during the pandemic and the influence of rising energy and chemical costs. Council members and staff discussed previous rate studies in 2016 and 2019–20 and said those earlier studies were not advanced to formal council proposals because of pandemic concerns and administrative transitions. Staff also noted the city is addressing other water projects tied to future supply and water-rights work.
A council member moved and the council approved amending Ordinance Nos. 11-07-B, 11-08-B and 11-09-B on second and final reading. The motion passed on a voice vote; no recorded roll-call tally of individual votes was provided in the meeting record.
The city indicated the rate changes and the move to monthly billing will be implemented in 2025 and that any budget adjustments required to reflect the changes will be presented to council in a future budget amendment.
